The present invention relates to an inflated treatment cover and to a method of treatment that includes flowing conditioned air onto a person from a cover suspended above and out of contact with the person to assist in maintaining proper body temperature.
Prior to the present invention, numerous procedures and devices have been proposed for treating persons having difficulty in maintaining a constant and proper body temperature. Burn patients, neurologically damaged individuals, neonatal patients, and other cases involving hypo-hyperthermia are but a few examples of situations where body temperature control is critical. Lives are lost when hospitalized patients fail to regulate their own body temperatures particularly when these temperatures rise above 106.degree. F. or drop below 90.degree. F.
When a patient suddenly loses control and his body temperature drops at an alarming rate, heat lamps are commonly used to warm the patient and thereby avoid a crisis situation. However, these lamps clutter the area and make the entire hospital room uncomfortably hot thereby making it quite difficult for doctors and nurses to administer to the needs of the patient. Cooling a patient who requires such treatment usually involves packing ice under and around the patient to lower his body temperature. This procedure takes considerable time and effort in set-up as well as clean-up, and is somewhat inefficient since cold air tends to drop to the floor where it has little beneficial effect on the patient.
Presently available hypo-hyperthermia devices work with a liquid water or alcohol) as the transfer medium and a vinyl blanket with water passage ways as the temperature transfer device. The water must be heated and cooled by use of a heat pump and the pumped through the blanket.
Moreover, the medical industry has long recognized the need for a single device which is capable of both heating and cooling a patient particularly since many patients go back and forth from hot to cold when they lose control of their systems.